The international law in its present form abounds with paradoxes. For example, it explicitly disallows the use of incendiary bullets, but contains no ban on the use of nuclear weapons. The present-day criminal law is in many parts just as incoherent: degrading treatment of captured occupants who brought death to the country they invaded is punishable internationally while aggression against a sovereign country is not.

IN ANTICIPATION OF the President's visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Smolensky Square was spruced up fit for a king. The marble was polished until it shone, and all the cars were removed from the parking lot. The pompous conference hall, which has seen more auspicious occasions and guests in its time than one would care to count, removed its crimson red apparel to don a shade of subtle terracotta instead. The ministry's new emblem, approved the previous day by the President, adorned the wall with its heraldic symbol emblazing the center, while each of the eagle's talons clutched a palm branch distinctly reminiscent of goose feathers. The image does not seem complete, however, without the wax-sealed scroll, the prototype of old embassy dispatch...

The atmosphere of intense anticipation was defused by the President's delay; he would not arrive and deliver his speech for another three hours. This gave Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina, Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov, Chairman of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin, and Chairman of the Management Board of the Institute of Contemporary Development Igor Yurgens the opportunity to speak at the very beginning of the meeting. They were listened to attentively, just as the audience listens to the overture at the opera while the curtain is still closed before the main performers appear.

Belgium took on the rotating 6-month EU presidency on July 1. Due to the country's own internal divisions and occasionally strained relations with the Balkan EU hopefuls, Belgium's presidency will likely confront the “united Europe” with a serious test. Just one of an array of reasons why the nearest future may hold new problems for the already embattled EU is that currently Belgium has an interim government. In a rather ironic recent comment, Radio France Internationale described the whole arrangement as somewhat eccentric.

Summer is not only the best season to have a vacation but also time to think over some political events and revise, if necessary, existing political strategies. India is not an exception.Major issues on the agenda are as follows: what links are there between Delhi's focus on polycentric world order and almost hidden but consistent steps aimed at changing India's position in global politics?

"Are you are looking for investments that could bring in 2,000% in three years? “ The "Wall Street Journal" in 1995 teased its readers. “Only one stock market promises such a result ... Russia.” Yet, as noted in her book "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein, Yeltsin "deviated" from the doctrine of the Chicago school, by not allowing foreigners to directly buy up "Russian wealth." Still, the profits were astronomical. First of all, enterprises fell into the hands of a new layer of society, the so-called oligarchs, and these opened the door for foreign companies.